November 8, 2005

WHO selects bird flu samples from Mongolia for vaccine development

The World Health Organization has selected bird flu virus samples from wild birds in Mongolia, as part of a programme to develop a new human pandemic influenza vaccine. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) veterinarians collected the samples, in the midst of an August outbreak that killed wild ducks, geese and swans in northern Mongolia,

Earlier, the USDA South-east Poultry Research Laboratory had confirmed the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu in the samples.

The field team that collected the samples also included staff from the Mongolian National Academy of Sciences, Mongolian Institute of Veterinary Medicine, State Central Veterinary Laboratory and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture Veterinary Department. Samples were then taken from hundreds of live and dead wild birds, including the ruddy shelduck, herring gull, black-headed gull, bar-headed goose, and whooper swans, which have been known to be affected by the disease.